Creative Noggin has been a valued partner in the launch of The DoSeum, developing creative, innovative pieces that have resonated with local and national audiences. From creating beautiful fundraising pieces to designing playful billboards, collateral and web site featuring local kids, they have been wonderful to work with every step of the way. I would recommend them to anyone seeking a top-notch creative partner.

—
Cristina NoriegaThe DoSeumMarketing Director

SITUATION

After 15 years at their downtown location, The San Antonio Children’s Museum was preparing to unveil their spectacular new location when they asked for our help. The new museum would be one of the top children’s museums in the country and provide exhibits San Antonio had never seen. The vision was to not only educate children on the fundamentals of STEM (Science-Technology-Engineering-Math), but to also serve as a partner for educators around San Antonio. This world class educational masterpiece was set to change the landscape of San Antonio education.

Challenges

Aside from a completely new brand, they needed to convey it all with a new name, too.

While building momentum for the grand opening of the new location, there was still a need to keep visitors coming to the old location until it officially closed for the “big move.”

They needed to convey how much higher they were raising the educational bar and how much fun kids would have at the same time.

The old location had garnered a default reputation thanks to a lack of outdoor exhibits, difficult parking and an old building with aging exhibits.

Since the new facility would not be completed before the need to promote, we would have no photography from the new spaces or exhibits.

They needed to solicit bigger and better partnerships, corporate sponsorships and memberships before opening.

Approach

Creative Noggin worked closely with the museum marketing team to brainstorm strategies for both the current and new location for one year, six months, three months and weeks before opening that included:

Extensive and comprehensive media planning working as an extension of their internal marketing team and serving as a marketing strategist.

Creative solicitations for corporate underwriting and consumer support and membership.

A transition logo to be used on all San Antonio Children’s Museum and The DoSeum materials to help the public audience and corporate partners to understand the transition.

A base library of original photography of kids using various objects and ideas that might be found in the new facility. These images would help launch the new brand until actual exhibit photography could be captured.

Creative application and further development of their very simple and clean brand design. We created numerous pieces using strong headlines, fun kid photography and their newly established logo and brand colors.

Promotional videos to drive attendance and support.

Recruitment, training and management of a street team who would visit popular San Antonio events to engage pedestrians and spread the word about the museum.

Results*

The DoSeum reached their 100,000th visitor on July 13 — well above what was initially projected.

The DoSeum now has over 9,000 active memberships—well above the 5,700 total projected by December 31 of this 2015.

TheDoSeum.org is a high traffic web site, with a daily average of over 4,000 visitors. In June 2015 alone, TheDoSeum.org site tracked 134,306 sessions.